


Synchronization

by sublimeWaves



Series: 25 EXO Challenges [6]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Bars and Pubs, Character Death, Death, F/M, Hearts, M/M, Moving On, Pining, Some pairings are not tagged, True Love, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-09
Updated: 2016-07-09
Packaged: 2018-07-22 11:39:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7436437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sublimeWaves/pseuds/sublimeWaves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They say lovers have hearts that beat in time with one another.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Synchronization

**Author's Note:**

> Emotion: Cover-Up   
> Word: Revealing  
> Theme: Lovesick
> 
> So this world contains the concept of mechanical hearts. There are some anatomically impossible things that happen (including just being able to open the chest like a cabinet to look at hearts). I like to think they are similar to watches.   
> Just roll with it.

The heart is just a machine made of gears and semiprecious metals laced with a substance unique to each user that wills it to work.  The substance, mysterious to everyone and eludes even the top scientists, reacts to the emotions of the user.  Stress and overemotional strain can affect the gears of the heart and slow it down or form scratches on the exterior, breaking it down.  If the strain is too much, a critical point is reached and the heart stops.

Fortunately, they can be fixed, for a price, until the day the gears stop, and proceed to disintegrate.  If a heart is broken to many times, though, the heart cannot be fixed.  When a heart is fixed it can take away some of the pain that a broken heart produces.  Jongin is one of these so called heart repairers.  He specializes in hearts broken from love, but will take on other special requests or those pertaining to stress.

Kai’s Workshop (a name given to Jongin by a good friend of his when they were five) only has one worker: Jongin.  His customer base ranges from ex-loved ones that cry as they have their hearts examined to business men who work eighty hour weeks.  They cry as they talk about wanting someone whose heart beats in time with another, a popular myth that lovers have hearts that beat in time with one another.

Firstly, he would open up his customer’s chest.  Then, he would carefully take the broken hearts, and fuse the substance that was left to a temporary heart.  A temporary heart did not last long and would soon fail in a matter of hours, so Jongin would work fast and the happy customer would pick the heart up and leave his life forever.

Most people are a one time job, maybe two or three times, and Jongin never sees them again and hopes not to.  Not that that way of thinking is profitable but Jongin has never had a problem with not having enough customers in the four years his shop has been open.  His shop is across the streets from a hospital, which garnered a lot of business, and he knew most of the doctors at this point due to their recommendations.

It was a rarity that a heart repairer would even have a regular customer, most hearts giving out due to too much strain.  Surprisingly, Jongin has three primary returning customers, all with their own set of problems.

Granted, the first regular wasn’t a customer at first. 

Baekhyun and Jongin’s friendship goes back to when they were early teens.  Baekhyun needed someone to listen to his multitude of problems and endless observations and give pseudo helpful advice that he would never take.  Jongin was a great listener and generally steadier than the flighty Baekhyun so he filled the role well.

Baekhyun knew a lot of people, but cherished few as close friends, and he thrived off being near people, the opposite of Jongin.  It was no surprise to Jongin that Baekhyun was a serial dater.  He just gave off that vibe.  There was always a new girl or guy on his arm at the parties Jongin was dragged to.  There was always a new contact that was embellished with a heart that he was texting.  He was quickly labelled as a player.

His conquests would soon leave and show up again at some party a week later and Jongin would see the two talk as friends.  Amazingly, most of Baekhyun’s partners still considered them friends as if they parted on friendly terms.  Jongin was always impressed and surprised every time that he saw it happen.

When Jongin got his license to mend hearts, he was curious about all hearts.  One movie night, Baekhyun fell asleep, curled in a quilt, when Jongin couldn’t take it anymore and looked at his best friend’s heart.  It seemed fine at a glance but small fissures were _everywhere_.  They were threatening the stability of the heart as a whole and could be very dangerous, especially since these were so small.

He told Baekhyun immediately the next morning during breakfast at the shitty diner that they always go to on Sunday mornings like a ritual.  “I can fix your heart for free.  I just need to know that you’ll tell me about this next time.  I can’t have you going and dying on me.”

Baekhyun smiled, strained given the annoyance Jongin could sense since the beginning of this conversation.  “I knew you cared for me.”

Jongin doesn’t respond and the two eat their breakfast in silence.  Baekhyun has dropped the smile and now outwardly frowns the whole time.  They leave the restaurant and the other speaks while staring straight towards the ground.  Jongin looks forward.  “I’m not a player.”

Jongin frowns.  “I never said you were.”

The other makes a nasty noise from the back of his throat.  He’s bitter.  “Everyone says so.  I know you think so too, you prude.”

“Just because I don’t date…”

“I’m not a player.”  Baekhyun doesn’t even acknowledge the interruption and continues to talk.  “I just can’t date for long.”

“If you were a player than you wouldn’t have the breaking in your heart.  You care about these people.”  Jongin says.  “So why let them go?”

“I only date people I think would be good matches but half of them never want anything long term because they think I am a player and I have a reputation.”  He admits.

This news is a surprise to Jongin.  He thought Baekhyun liked the one night stands, boasting about them when they hang out with Baekhyun’s coworker, Chanyeol.  What else is his best friend hiding?  “The other half?”

Baekhyun stops and looks at his feet.  His voice is low.  “I believe in love at first sight… True love.”

“When did you get romantic?”

“Since always.”

This shocks Jongin more than anything Baekhyun has ever told him.  “So you go on three dates and you dump them.  What if it takes longer to know?”

“I can tell.”  Baekhyun stops.  “I tell them why I dump them.”

Jongin thinks back to all of those friendly exes.  “Is that how you are still friends with all your exes?”

“Yep!”  Baekhyun now smiles and can go back to looking Jongin in the eyes.  “They always think it is so romantic.”

The continuous hope and obsessive attachment is detrimental to a heart and Jongin has never seen anything like Baekhyun’s.  Baekhyun isn’t much older than him and he has a heart that is getting harder and harder to mend. 

He couldn’t repair one fracture the last time he looked at his best friend’s heart.

Baekhyun just gets attached too quickly only to be disappointed just as quickly.  Jongin worries for his friend every single time he comes in or asks to take the pain away, a new partner as his phone’s wallpaper.  No matter what he does, he can’t stop his best friend slowly creeping towards the critical point.

The second customer is one of the youngest he has ever encountered.

Jongin’s friend, Yixing, works as a doctor at the hospital across the street with his boyfriend, Yifan.  Yifan’s family friend, a wealthy one as Yifan comes from money, has a son who needed heart work done.

The woman is tall and gorgeous, long black hair falling in curls and a dress fit for a world leader.  Her harsh expression greeted Jongin and her son was quietly behind her.  The boy was dressed in a private school uniform and had a very pretty face for an eleven year old.  The boy smiles at him.

The woman explains her son, Lu Han, complains that his heart was hurting which was unusual for such a young boy.  When Lu Han goes to explain, his mother shushes him and he backs down.  She writes it off as the boy giving off ridiculous reasons which she was sure would just waste Jongin’s time.  She concludes that it must be a malfunction.

The heart had marks in it which would get progressively deeper, usually the work of one person ruining the majority of his heart and small fractures on the side and two semi large lines running vertical.  The main scar looked nasty as it rose from the top right to the bottom left, intersecting the two vertical lines at different points.  Jongin guesses it is the work of three people.  The fixed the hart, it looked brand new and that was that.

He didn’t expect Lu Han, always in the company of his mother and a smile, coming into his store two weeks later with the same problems but scars not as deep.  This continued for the next couple months.  His mother never understood what was happening and Lu Han never spoke.  He watched in silence as he fixed the heart of a young boy that was starting to look to belong to someone four times his own age.

The third person is a short man with wide shoulders and a smooth, nice face. 

His eyes are wide but never focused.  He always looks out the window or stares at the watch on his wrist.  His eyes are deep, Jongin loves to let himself get consumed by them, but are always accompanied with a frown.

The man was recommended by Yixing after the first six months of knowing him.  He came in and explained to Jongin that his boyfriend of five years at the time was diagnosed six months ago with a sickness out of the blue.  The man was now hospital bound.  Kyungsoo came in with deep fractures on every centimeter of his heart’s surface.  Much like Baekhyun’s but worst as each week the fissures were there and growing  more abundant and deeper. 

The man was a bit dark and morbid and Jongin was sure he was that way beforehand and this experience was bringing it out more.  According to Yixing, Kyungsoo only goes to work, the hospital, Jongin’s shop and home.  It is a lonely life, solitude.  He comes in each week, on Fridays, to come and get his heart fixed up.

Jongin likes to talk to the man, since Fridays are his slow days and the man, Kyungsoo, makes good company.  The heart repairer will ask him about his boyfriend but then go into more lively topics about shared interests like music or stories about their youth.  Kyungsoo seems to like the ones that embarrass Yifan and Yixing the most so that he has something to laugh at while at the hospital.

The man was reserved but caring and even passionate in some areas of his life.  He talked vividly of the work he used to do, a violist for the orchestra in town.  Sometimes he will talk about his best friend, who after two months Jongin realized was Chanyeol, Baekhyun’s coworker, and their antics from living together.  Jongin thinks he has made a very good friend in Kyungsoo.

\------------

Baekhyun bugs Jongin to go out for a drink with him.  It finds Jongin in a dark corner in a homey artesian brewery nursing some kind of fancy dark ale.  Baekhyun is drowning himself in something much lighter but just as mysterious to Jongin.  His nose is scrunched up.  “She doesn’t like dogs!  Who doesn’t like puppies?”

“That doesn’t mean you dump her at her parent’s house.”  Jongin responds.  He thinks it is a travesty that there is a girl out there who doesn’t like dogs but Baekhyun had screwed up this time.

“She doesn’t like dogs!  _You_ of all people should understand.”  The girl, unknown to Jongin, was Baekhyun’s ‘thing’ for six days.  He doesn’t want to call her a girlfriend because she was barely a girlfriend at all.  “I was thinking of taking the new barista here for wine and a look at the stars.”

Jongin sighs.  Not another one.  “Romantic.”

“I’ve always wanted to do that.  Haven’t you?”  His best friend has stars in his eyes.  After his confession of being a complete sap, Jongin noticed that he had stopped holding back from revealing all of his cheesy dreams.

“No.”

Baekhyun scoffs as he takes a drink.  He waves his hand at Jongin, a sign that he had reached the tipsy stage.  “That is how I know you’ve never had a date in your life.”

“So?”

“ _Jongin_.” Take that back, this was the I-am-not-drunk-sorry-I-spilt-something-on-you-sorry-I-swear-I-am-not-drunk stage.  He picks at his fingernails.  “I could set you up with Chanyeol.”

Hold up.  “Seriously?  _Chanyeol_?”

“He’s romantic.”  Jongin stares.  There are so many things wrong with that statement.  The first being that Chanyeol was in love with someone else and the second being that he would never like Jongin.

“I don’t care.  It’s Chanyeol.”  The third was that Jongin would never date anyone as loud and boisterous as Chanyeol, or anyone romantic.  “You date him if he’s so romantic.”

“Ew.”  Baekhyun makes a face.  He thinks for a second as he finishes his beer.  He’s drunk enough now that Jongin can see the second that he gets a good idea.  “How about that regular customer of yours?”

“Lu Han is a bit young.”

“No.  Honestly, who do you think I am?”  Baekhyun feigns offense.  “The other?”

“He’s got someone.”

“Shame.”  Baekhyun sighs.  “You need to get into the game before it is too late and you end up all alone for the rest of your life.”

\------------

“Hey.”  A familiar voice says as the bell ringing above the door of Jongin’s shop rings out.  Jongin looks up from his gears and a grin forms on his face as he sees Kyungsoo.  He puts down his tools and walks over to the counter. 

“Another check-up?”  Kyungsoo doesn’t say anything, just sits on the chair and Jongin gets to work, opening his chest.  He starts out with the standard first question.  “How is he?”

Up close Kyungsoo has lighter bags under his eyes than last time.  He looks healthier, too.  That was a good sign.  Jongin worries about him being so cooped up in that hospital.  “Better.  Myun now eats more.”

“So success?”

“I would call it so.”

“Yixing says he got some of his color back.”  Jongin comments.  Every Tuesday he has dinner at Yifan and Yixing’s house and they talk about work and their lives.  Yixing has taken a liking towards Kyungsoo and Joonmyun over the last two years.  Yifan won’t admit it, but he has as well.

Joonmyun is beautiful from the pictures Jongin has seen as well as on the inside from the stories told to him.  Kyungsoo hums in response.  Jongin asks about if Yixing talked about his last concert visit.  He has, Jongin knows from Tuesday’s dinner, and Kyungsoo talks about how he used to go to concerts of all kinds all the time years ago, sometimes with his boyfriend, sometimes with Chanyeol, sometimes with both.

As Jongin works, he can feel the rhythm of Kyungsoo’s voice as he talks.  The voices wraps around his ears and fills up with mind in comfort.  He revels in it until he is finished putting the temporary heart in.  Kyungsoo still talks and Jongin responds in small disjointed answers, preferring to listen.  They both love music and silence and books and pancakes and butterscotch ice cream and dogs. 

Joonmyun, though, was Kyungsoo’s soulmate if you listened to how Kyungsoo speaks about him, _praises_ him.

Jongin examines the heart and starts the delicate patching process as Kyungsoo speaks.  The main fracture deepens every time he sees it and this time he can’t make the heart smooth as he would like it to be.  There is an indentation, like a crappy patch up job to a car, but it is the best that Jongin can do.  He holds Kyungsoo heart and gives it back to the owner and is honest with the man.  “I couldn’t fix it all.”

There is a flash of fear in the man’s eyes.  His heart is breaking beyond repair.  If this continued, it could stop working.  Kyungsoo puts the thought to the side.  His mouth is dry.  “Love is watching someone die or so they say.”

“That doesn’t mean death is watching someone die.”  Jongin responds.  Kyungsoo stares at him as he pays with a card.  There is nothing else to say.  His eyes soften as he says goodbye and walks out of the door.

\------------

Jongin is home alone and eating a simple dinner when he is watching TV when he feels a pang of lowliness from out of left field.  He imagines that a body is leaning on his, a hand intertwined with his when he realizes that he is longing for Kyungsoo’s hands and touch.  There is a need to hold Kyungsoo’s heart in his, both physically and metaphorically.  He quickly shuts his thoughts down and put a lid on a box that should not be reopened.  He thinks that shockingly, Baekhyun might be right and he needs to get back into (or in his case start) the dating game.

He doesn’t call Baekhyun about the problem, although they do discuss a multitude of other things during their weekly Sunday morning breakfast.  It’s Wednesday evening when Yixing calls him.  It’s unusual as Jongin because he just had Tuesday night dinner with him.  When this happens it is usually not good news.

“Yixing?”  The man is crying.  Another lost patient, he knows.  Jongin thinks the man is too kind for this work.  Jongin will fix his heart twice and he knows that the fourth time Yifan will make Yixing quit.  “Who is it, Xing?”

The voice is muffled and Jongin tells him that it is okay.  He was shit at comforting people.  Still is, but Yifan, the worst at comforting others (or anything in the emotional department), had given him tips.  Just keep talking and saying it was okay.  Jongin hears the phone drop and he sighs as it is picked up.  “Hello?”

It’s Yifan.  “Hey Yifan… Who is it?”

“Joonmyun.”  Jongin is silent, chest constricting.  “Jongin?”

Yifan’s voice seems distant, an echo into his ear.  Jongin didn’t know Joonmyun, never met the man in his life.  He worries for those who did.  He snaps out of his small daze.  “Is Yixing alright?  Kyungsoo?”

There’s a troubled sigh.  No, it is saying.  “Yixing will be okay.  Kyungsoo is just staring at a wall.  I don’t know what to do.”

“Let him be for a while.  Kyungsoo doesn’t like people constantly comforting him.  He likes space.”  Yixing stops crying about twenty minutes later and Jongin hangs up the phone.  He stares at his dinner.

\------------

Kyungsoo doesn’t come into the store that week.

Or the week after.

Lu Han does with his mother and sits quietly on Thursday.  The main fracture is the same depth as always.  One of the lesser scars is deeper than usual.  His mother tells Jongin what she thinks he needs to know.  Lu Han’s doing well in school and his extracurricular, violin and soccer.  His teacher says the boy is popular but hangs around the same group of friends.  It’s the same conversation every time.

Jongin suggests that it might be stress.  This is not the whole truth, as it would explain the fissures (and probably the cause of them), but the bigger cracks are usually about other things and usually those things are usually people that are important to him.  It still seems like three different people are responsible for this.

He had tried to tell the woman before but she scoffed at the mere mention.  The boy was too young to be in love.

\------------

Kyungsoo doesn’t come in the next month. 

Chanyeol tells Baekhyun and Jongin during a night out that he has just been locked up in his room only coming out to see the kitchen.  Kyungsoo does not want to speak to Chanyeol and seems to outright ignore his presence.

“I need to look at his heart.”  Jongin says.  That captures his best friend’s attention.  Baekhyun’s eyes are bugged out, hands in his lap and clutched around his drink.

“Was it that bad?”  Chanyeol asks.  The man’s attention is focused on Jongin.  His drink is momentarily forgotten.  The man lets out a sigh of frustration.  “What am I saying?  It must be horrible.”

Jongin is not a therapist.  He is not obligated to protect the information freely told to him.  Jongin _is_ under oath to save all hearts he deems in danger.  “It was unrepairable the last time I checked it.”

“How long?”  Chanyeol asks, grave.  It doesn’t fit his face well.  Next to him, Baekhyun is silent, eyes bugged.

“I don’t know.”  Jongin answers honestly.  “I would need to see the break.”

“What if you can’t fix it?”  Beakhyun whispers.  Chanyeol blinks then takes a large gulp of drink back and slaps Baekhyun on the back.

“Of course he can!  You shouldn’t worry.”  He laughs loud and leans on the smaller man.  Baekhyun looks up to Jongin and only encounters a strict face.  Chanyeol’s is much more welcoming and Baekhyun smiles at it.

Chanyeol changes the topic from there, recounting an embarrassingly funny story of Baekhyun at work to Jongin much to Baekhyun’s chagrin.  Jongin observes as Chanyeol tells stories, a big grin on his face, leaning into Baekhyun.  Baekhyun has a good time, earlier worries seem to be forgotten under Chanyeol’s attempts to cheer him up.

Chanyeol offers to walk them home at the end of the night.  They decline.  Jongin didn’t drink enough and after the Kyungsoo talk, Baekhyun had kept cheerful but hadn’t touched a drink.  Chanyeol takes a taxi and Jongin and Baekhyun walk the six blocks to Baekhyun’s and the eight blocks to Jongin’s.  Baekhyun is quiet, arm in Jongin’s.  Jongin waits for his best friend to talk about what has him so shaken up.

Baekhyun is quiet when he starts to speak right outside of his apartment complex.  “You can fix my heart, right?”

Jongin doesn’t like where this is going.  “I can.”

“But you can’t fix Kyungsoo’s anymore!  Just like mine!”  Baekhyun exclaims.  He’s frantic, stopping on the sidewalk at one in the morning on a Saturday.

“It’s a small one, it’s not like Kyungsoo’s.”  Jongin tries to explain.  Kyungsoo’s condition is frightening.  Baekhyun is nowhere close to that.  It _is_ on the same path and it _is_ concerning but Baekhyun is too panicked.

“You couldn’t fix it!”  He repeats, throwing his hands down.  He can’t stay still, pacing in a circle.  It is like he didn’t even here Jongin.

“Baekhyun!”  Jongin exclaims, trying to keep his friend’s voice down.  “You’re drunk.”

Baekhyun stops and stares at Jongin.  “I’m dying.”  He utters.

Jongin sighs.  “Don’t be dramatic.”

“I’m killing myself.”  Baekhyun whispers.  His eyes are frantic as the try to find somewhere to look.  He obviously didn’t hear Jongin.

“Baekhyun!”  Jongin tries to get his friend to calm down.  He puts his hands on Baekhyun’s shoulders.

“No!”  Baekhyun shoves him off.  “I just want to find someone who is good for me.  You know?  Someone who instantly connects.  What if I can’t find them in time?”

“You have time.”  At this, Baekhyun goes back to Jongin after a minute of silence.  They hug, a much calmer Baekhyun emerging.

“I don’t want to die.”  Baekhyun says as he pulls away from Jongin.  His pupils are blown wide.  He runs into the building leaving a dejected Jongin on the side.  He calls Baekhyun the next day out of worry.  He sounds sad.  Jongin asks him to come into the shop for reassurance.

\------------

Two months after Joonmyun’s death, on a Monday, Lu Han comes in alone and not on his biweekly Thursday appointment.  He’s in his school uniform and waits for a business man to get his temporary heart removed before flashing Jongin a smile.  He sits on the examination chair, a plain stool, as he waits.

“Couldn’t wait three more days?”  Jongin asks.

Lu Han looks a bit shy as he puts a hand over his heart.  “It hurts more than usual.”

The heart was the same as always, three scars.  None of them looked nastier than the others until he turned the heart around.  Another scar had developed, mirroring the large scar on the front.  Without his mother here, Jongin realizes that he could tell the boy exactly what was wrong with his heart.  Lu Han’s mother is trying to be protective of her child but keeping this information from him could be detrimental.

“This line is by someone important to you.”  Jongin says as he traces the large diagonal scar.  Lu Han’s eyes are hyper focused on the scar.  Jongin then runs over the two vertical scars.  “These two are by people as well.  I imagine that the rest is stress.”

Most people, older that Lu Han are surprised by this news.  The damage is sometimes an unknown cause.  They are alarmed.  With so much mystery and the boy coming in so often, Jongin expects the boy to have a major reaction.  Lu Han just nods.  “That sounds right.”

The boy is strange.  “Most people would be alarmed.”

“Alarmed?”  Lu Han’s eyes are comically wide like he is in wonder.  He has a childlike innocence which hits Jongin somewhere in him.

“Your heart is damaged.”  Jongin says.  “This can be dangerous.”

“So I need to stop the people from hurting me?”  Lu Han asks.  Jongin nods.  “Well I can’t do that.”

The boy seems so sure of himself.  “You can’t?  Are you sure?”

“I love them.”  Lu Han answers like it is that simple.  Jongin realizes that the boy is saying that he can’t get away from them.  He takes an educated guess on who the two vertical stripes are.

He runs his hands over the vertical scars as he works.  “Are these two your parents?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure.”  Lu Han says.

Jongin makes sure to word his next question carefully.  “Do they hurt you?”

Lu Han waves him off.  “It’s just stress.  They want me to do well in school and in life.  I don’t want to disappoint them.  This whole heart things is already annoying them.”

Jongin nods in understanding before getting to work on the larger scar.  “Do you know who this is?”

“Yes.”

“Can you walk away from them?”

“No.”  Lu Han quickly adds, eyes trained on his heart as Jongin works.  “My mom will make me leave them if she knew.”

“Is it a girl or something?”  Lu Han’s eyes are blank and Jongin dismisses the thought. “You might be a bit too young.”

Lu Han doesn’t say anything else as Jongin repairs the heart.  Lu Han goes to give him money at the end of the appointment but Jongin doesn’t accept.  He isn’t going to take money from a kid who is obviously in distress.  Lu Han answers the question before he leaves. “It’s my best friend. Please, don’t tell my mother I was here or what I told you.”

“I won’t.”

\------------

“I found the answer.”  Baekhyun says over the voices of the extremely busy café that Jongin hates.  It was Baekhyun’s turn to pick Sunday morning breakfast.  He loves this place.  “Speed dating.  Lots of candidates in a small period of time.”

“You have time Baekhyun.”

“Do I?”  Baekhyun questions airily.  Jongin isn’t used to seeing his best friend like this.  He is going through some type of crisis and Jongin has suggested more than once that Baekhyun should either date someone for longer than a week or take a break entirely.  Baekhyun never listens.

He tries a different approach.  “Don’t you think you are forcing this a bit?  Don’t soulmates find each other naturally?”

“How can they find me if I’m dead?”  Baekhyun asks as he sips his coffee laced with enough sugar to fill a salt shaker.  Jongin gives up and puts a hand to his forehead in frustration.

\------------

After three months, Kyungsoo comes in.  He’s put together, neat and orderly, but his face is pale and there are shadows under his eyes.  He has also lost some weight.  Chanyeol had said he was doing a bit better.  He at least has talked to Chanyeol so that was a sign.

“Hey.”  Jongin starts out.  He’s nervous.  He has no idea what to say.  He knows he can’t comfort people.

“Chanyeol said I should come in.” Kyungsoo fidgets, as he always did, as he walks passed the counter and sits on the stool.  He strolls in like he hasn’t been gone three months, unlike Jongin’s wide eyes.  Jongin nods along.  “I’m not so sure.”

Jongin goes to open his chest.  He braces himself for how bad it may be.  “Have you noticed anything different?”

“It’s running slow.”  Kyungsoo says.  The heart repairer doesn’t respond as he sees the state of the heart.  It’s bad, worst that he thought.  The diagonal scar that was there is deep and wide and small fractures that could be dangerous just on their own spread from the main one.  Jongin’s not sure it can last much longer.  “Is it going to stop?”

Kyungsoo is staring at him as Jongin takes the heart to his work desk.  The temporary heart looks bright and shiny inside Kyungsoo’s chest.  Jongin doesn’t beat around the bush, not with someone who values honesty and is in danger.  “If you didn’t come in, yes.  Why didn’t you come in sooner?”

“I didn’t know if I wanted to get it fixed.”  There is no light in Kyungsoo’s eyes. His voice isn’t light.  It leaves stones in the bottom of Jongin’s chest. “I spent so long with him as my priority, I’m not sure what to do.  He didn’t want me to stay around and watch him wither, but I did.”

Jongin doesn’t answer right away.  He focuses on the broken heart.  The patch up job is barely more than a Band-Aid.  The heart is almost beyond saving.  Jongin tries his best but it may not be enough.  His thoughts are swimming frantically through his mind.  He needs to say something.  He needs to tell Kyungsoo something.  Kyungsoo needs to pay and he doesn’t have much time left.  In his shock he is a bit blunter than usual.  “Maybe you should focus on your own happiness.”

Kyungsoo leaves in silence.

\------------

Chanyeol drags Kyungsoo out for drinks that Friday with Jongin and Baekhyun.  Kyungsoo is quiet and barely talks.  When he does, Baekhyun adores him.  Baekhyun has heard so much about him from Chanyeol and Jongin that his excitement bubbles over most of the night.  Kyungsoo doesn’t adore him or anything aback.  They talk about the symphony and light topics, Kyungsoo observing and not contributing.  He smiles once the whole entire night.

Most of the night he listens as Chanyeol jokes or Baekhyun laughs.  Sometimes, he’ll look to Jongin.  There is a bubbling in the bottom of Jongin’s stomach that he tries to ignore.  He orders water during the next round of drinks.

\------------

A week later, Lu Han comes into the shop alone on a Monday afternoon.  He smiles, but there is a strain there that Jongin notices.  It’s been there for the last two appointments that Lu Han has had with his mother.  His mother yammers and Jongin can see the boy is just waiting to ask Jongin about something.  Now is his chance.

“Does it hurt again?”  Jongin asks when Lu Han doesn’t immediately say anything. His heart clearly has the same problem that it did last time.  The main person, the best friend, has done something or not done something.  “Is it your best friend?”

“He made a new friend.”  The boy is calm as he looks to the side.  “But, I like him too.”

“So you both like the same person.”  Jongin concludes.  A classic story of two best friends liking the same person.  Lu Han shakes his head, rejecting that idea.

“My best friend and he are the only kids who have ever liked me.  I’m not stupid, I know what the others say about me.”  His mouth is in a straight line as he waits for his heart to be fixed.  He’s biting the side of his cheek.  “My best friend and I have been friends since we were three.  I told him we were going to get married at five.  My family awed and thought I was kidding.  I even had a fake ceremony and everything.  He thought I was kidding, too.  I’ve asked him to marry me every year since but he thinks it is just a joke.  He laughs it off.  Now, I think he likes Chen, ‘likes likes’ Chen.”

Unrequited young (very young) love.  Jongin has seen it scar up hearts time and time again.  The heart has been repaired at this point.  He motions for Lu Han to sit down.  “Is Chen your new friend?”

“It’s his nickname but yes.”  Lu Han looks dejected, lips frowning, he’s sucked in his whole cheek at this point.  “I’m heartbroken, literally.”

Jongin has no experience in love, but his customers seem to think he has all the answers.  “Have you told him any of this?”

“No.”  Lu Han immediately answers.  “I don’t know what he will say.”

“How about your mother?”  Lu Han’s eyebrows shoot up.

“Have you met her?  She doesn’t listen to me!”  He stands up with the new heart implemented inside of his chest.  “She’ll make him leave because she just wants this whole heart thing to be over.  I don’t want him to leave.”

\------------

Kyungsoo comes in to the shop on a lazy Tuesday afternoon.  Jongin greets him by putting his tools away and walking over to the counter.  Jongin greets him and starts to look at the fracture that is looking more life threatening every time he sees it.  It worries him greatly.

Kyungsoo is quiet and Jongin is anxious to start a conversation.  Anxiety dictates that he start to babble.  Kyungsoo used to fill in the silence but he doesn’t even offer up that right now.  The silence that used to be comfortable between them all of a sudden is bringing Jongin a sense of dread and a feeling of constriction around his throat. 

He babbles about the dinner with Yixing and Yifan he has that night.  Then, he babbles about the new drink he found at one of the bars he frequents.  He finds himself stumbling though the story of Lu Han and his family stress and unrequited love.  Chanyeol had told him to keep things positive but that’s not possible for real long in Jongin’s line of work.  Lu Han’s story is lengthy and Kyungsoo seems drawn into it.  Kyungsoo speaks for the time near the end of the account.

“So, this kid is in a stressful family and is pining for his best friend?”  Kyungsoo asks him as he nods his head in confirmation.  “If it his best friend, I’m sure it will work out fine.”

“You would think.”

The shorter is hesitant, stopping once before asking.  “Is he dying?”

“There is at least one scar I cannot repair.”  Jongin honestly tells him.

“His story is like Chanyeol’s.  Minus the family and Beakhyun being his best friend.”  It’s the first time Jongin has ever heard of Chanyeol’s affections being voiced out in the open.  It’s been like a secret he has kept for years and it makes him feel a bit uncomfortable. It apparently doesn’t make Kyungsoo feel that way.  He’s smiling a bit.

“So nothing really like it.”  Jongin jokes before he turns a bit more serious.  “Have you seen his heart?”

“No.”  Kyungsoo says and Jongin didn’t think he would have.  During the period of time he was busy looking at hearts, Chanyeol was adamant about no one looking at his.  After Baekhyun’s surprise heart, Jongin never looked at another heart without permission, but sometimes he thinks he would break that rule for Chanyeol.  It’s been years, it must be hurting.  “I know you’ve asked him to see it, but I think he wants to feel the pain.  He doesn’t want anyone to tamper with his heart. He says he wants to feel everything.”

“I worry.  Sometimes people just come in here to take the pain away, but I’m trying to fix their heart.  Their emotions just get patched up a bit when I do.  People don’t understand that the emotion comes back.”  Jongin says, a bit agitated.  He has seen this so many times.  _Too_ many customers with this thought process.  “I just to fix the heart so that they go on living.”

“Sometimes I wish you could fix all of the emotional aspect as well.”  Kyungsoo confesses.  “I only feel better for a day after these appointments.”

“Sometimes?”

Kyungsoo gives him an undecipherable look.  Jongin would categorize it as depressed.  “I don’t want it all to go away.”

\------------

Jongin is less anxious about Kyungsoo coming in each week.  A month later, Jongin asks for Kyungsoo to get drinks with him when their conversation is too long for one appointment.  The invitation is left open for Chanyeol as well so there is no pressure.  Chanyeol does not come but he and Kyungsoo meet for an hour and they talk easily.

Kyungsoo comes out more often when Chanyeol invites him to drinks.  Jongin watches as he picks apart each one of Chanyeol and Baekhyun’s interactions.  He laughs sometimes at the new person that Baekhyun is with that week.  He’s currently in a relationship with a girl who went to Harvard and is all together way out of his league.

It’s three in the morning on Sunday morning when Jongin is woken up by a call on his cell.  It’s Baekhyun so he is up in no time.

“I’m in the alleyway of that club near the minimart that has cow commercials.”  Baekhyun says immediately.  He sounds tired and drunk and he hangs up.  Jongin gets dressed and picks up his small bag including a small heart repair kit used for emergencies.

Baekhyun is in the alleyway alone, sitting on the metal stairs of a fire escape belonging to the apartment building next door.  His eyeliner is smudged and he has obviously been crying and clubbing.

 “Did Ji-Woo dump you?”  Jongin asks when Baekhyun makes no notice of him immediately.

“Yes, she said true love didn’t exist.  She said I was stupid to believe.”  Baekhyun said.  Usually his partners either laughed it off or thought it was sweet.  He was usually never ridiculed for it.  Jongin sits next to him.

“You’re not stupid.”

“But I am!”  Baekhyun almost yells, turning to his best friend.  He’s frustrated, hands curled and fingernails digging into his skin.

“Maybe you need a new strategy.  Maybe you should take a break.”  Jongin says to him.  He knows this advice never goes over well, ignored, but crying in an alleyway at three in the morning needs to be stopped.

“But I don’t have _time_ to take a break!  My heart is going to stop!”  Now he is yelling, Jongin tries to calm him down, hands on his shoulders.  They don’t need the police called on them.

“You’re fine, Baekhyun.”

The glare Baekhyun gives him is venomous “You’re just saying that.”

“I’m not!”  Jongin is starting to feel the pricks of anger and frustration.  “Maybe you should fucking stop and think about why this keeps happening.”

Baekhyun collapses into himself, face down into his knees as he sits on the stairs.  He’s crying, his eyeliner mixing with the tears and making him look like a panda.  He’s tired.  How did Jongin not notice the dark circles under his eyes?  “I’m scared, Jongin.  I don’t want to be alone and I don’t want to die.”

“Taking some time isn’t going to kill you.”  Jongin says and Baekhyun nods in understanding.  They stay there for a couple minutes before Jongin is pulling him up and they are on their way back to Jongin’s apartment.

\------------

During an appoint two weeks later, Jongin sees a gear fracture in one of the main gears in Kyungsoo’s heart.  He knows what that means.  It’s the red alert sign that every textbook he read in school screamed about.  “Did your heart stop?”

Nonchalantly, Kyungsoo responds.  “For a second.”

“A second?  Kyungsoo, this is serious!”  Jongin hasn’t lost anyone he has worked on for quite a while now.  It’s been at least two years.

“We both knew this was bound to happen sooner or later.”  Kyungsoo frowns.

“Maybe you should speak to someone.  I’m obligated by my work to tell you that.”  Jongin sighs.  He doesn’t want Kyungsoo to die.  He’s pretty sure that Kyungsoo doesn’t want to die.

“You sound like Chanyeol.”  He accuses.

“It doesn’t have to be a therapist.”

There is silence as Kyungsoo is stubborn and does not want to talk to anyone.  Jongin thought he was doing better, talking more.  Maybe he was wrong?  “Can I talk to you?”

The question takes him by surprise.  “If you need to.” 

Kyungsoo tells him stories about how Joonmyun met during their first semester of college.  How the two fell in love.  Every aspect of their lives together late into the night.  He stays past closing time and lets his mouth keep reminiscing.

Sometime at around nine at night does Jongin realize he loves this man and cold never live up to this amazing partner that Kyungsoo had.  Kyungsoo does not need Jongin being in love with him but he needs a support system.  The night leaves Jongin feeling like he needs to drown himself in alcohol.

\------------

A young boy with chubby cheeks comes into the shop on a Friday almost near closing time.  Jongin was about to close up but he makes an exception.  He’s young (too young to have a broken heart) and says his name is Minseok.  He doesn’t say more as his chest is opened up and a painful scar runs diagonally up the side.  The boy speaks when he is almost done with the patch up job.

“I followed Lu Han here a few weeks ago.”  The boy speaks softly, but confidently.

Jongin’s eyebrows raise.  “Lu Han?”

“He comes here every other Thursday and sometimes on Mondays.  He misses symphony for it.”  The boy looks up at Jongin, meeting his eyes.  “He’s my best friend.  Do you know why he comes here?  Do you know what is wrong?”

“He didn’t tell you?”  Jongin asks, surprised.  He thought he had gotten through to Lu Han.  The boy, anxious and quiet as he is, seems like he was stubborn and take his advice to heart.

“He’s keeping things from me.  He won’t tell me what is wrong.”  Minseok stares at the floor as Jongin patches up his heart.  His face is searching for answers from Jongin.  “Is it his parents?  I know they’re strict.”

“I think you should talk to him.”  Jongin says.  He doesn’t want to tell him Lu Han’s story.  Their best friends, they should work it out for themselves.  He takes the temporary heart out and fastens the boy’s heart in place.  Minseok doesn’t like that.  Keeping his chest open and pointing to his heart.

“This is because of him!  I care about him!”  The boy doesn’t raise his voice but there is power behind his words.  A plead.  “Please, tell me what is wrong.”

Jongin shuts his chest.  He refuses the money that the boy is willing to pay.  He can’t charge such a young kid.  “You should talk to him and tell him you’re here.”  He points to the kid’s chest.  “Tell him this is because of him.  Lu Han will understand.”

The boy blinks and his eyes widen and he whispers.  “Are you telling me he is here because of me?”  Jongin tries to deny this conclusion.  Is this kid really eleven?  “It is, isn’t it?”  The boy steps back and bows shallowly before leaving.  “Thank you.”

\------------

The night Jongin helps Baekhyun’s love life, his own takes a turn for the worse. 

After Minseok’s appointment, Jongin is contacted by Kyungsoo and is asked to meet up later that night.  Kyungsoo has been talking to Jongin about Chanyeol recently, almost obsessively.  He wants Chanyeol to confess his feelings to Baekhyun to at least Kyungsoo and Jongin since Chanyeol doesn’t know they know.  It’s been years since Chanyeol has had this crush.  Jongin has always been low key worried about Chanyeol’s heart and Kyungsoo just wants his best friend/roommate to be happy.

Chanyeol is three drinks in on a Friday and blabbering about his sister when Kyungsoo decides to strike. Jongin found it quite odd how obsessive Kyungsoo had gotten about this topic when he realized that Kyungsoo was probably trying to find a distraction. Jongin can’t say he minds the focus on such a problem.

Jongin loves to see the determination on Kyungsoo’s face.  It made him seem more confident, like the way he used to be.  He didn’t see sadness right now, just a guy who wanted to help his best friend during a hard time.  Baekhyun, conveniently, has to attend a family function and couldn’t come out tonight.

“How’s Baekhyun at work?”  Kyungsoo starts out.  Chanyeol is taking a drink and his eyebrows furrow.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s good, right?”

“A bit lazy, but he’s fine.”  The conversation is stilted on Chanyeol’s side.  The atmosphere is odd.  Jongin fidgets at the awkwardness.”  He’s good.”

“Only good?”  Kyungsoo probes further.

“Great, I don’t know.”  Chanyeol puts his hands in the air at the odd question.  “Why do you care?”

“He told me that the two of you tried to do a song together.”  Jongin says.

“Oh!”  Chanyeol exclaims, then turns a bit embarrassed.  “We were just messing around.”

“You’ve always wanted to do that with him.”  Kyungsoo explains.

“I like his voice, just like I like yours.”

Kyungsoo doesn’t back down.  “But you’ve always wanted to do that with him, specifically.”

“What are you getting at?”  Chanyeol asks.  Kyungsoo wasn’t doing this questioning thing slyly at all.  Jongin felt like disappearing.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.”  The shorter says innocently.

Chanyeol puts his drink down.  “Bullshit!”

“Baekhyun.”  Jongin interjects.

“What about him?”  Chanyeol questions, frustrated at Kyungsoo so his words have a bit of bite to them when he realizes that Jongin knows what is up as well.

Taking the lead, Kyungsoo continues.  “And you.”

Comically, Chanyeol’s jaw falls open, but nothing comes out.  Jongin has never seen the man be this quiet before he is trying to compose himself.  “Oh.”  A beat of understanding.  “He doesn’t know right?”

Jongin takes this question.  “He tried to set the two of us up so no.”  Chanyeol groans as he puts his head down into the table, a bit drunker than Jongin thought.

“Jongin here thinks you need to confess soon if you ever really wanted to confess.”  Kyungsoo says getting straight to the point.  Cheeks heating up due to the embarrassment, Jongin does not appreciate the attention diverting to him.

“Is something wrong with Baekhyun?”  Chanyeol asks.

“Nothing major.”  Jongin downplays.  “I just think he might be open to it.”

“I would but he’s got that true love thing going on.”  Chanyeol explains.  “He’s already met me and if he didn’t feel a connection within that first week he gives up, right?”

“You know about that?”  Jongin asks.  Kyungsoo, didn’t even know about the true love thing.  Jongin just thinks that the night of the nightclub might have changed Baekhyun a bit since he hasn’t really dated anyone for like two weeks.

“After two years of asking how he goes through so many partners.”  Chanyeol is swirling his drink.  Looking a bit hopeless.  Jongin has never seen the man look like something not happy for so long.

“I think you’ll be okay.”  Jongin reiterates.  The man looks up and then smiles and gets up.

“If you say so then I guess I’ll go try it.”  Chanyeol’s mood seems to have lifted. “I’m going to go dance.”

Chanyeol leaves to go dance so to take the stress off of the intense conversation that just occurred.  Jongin finishes his drink.  Kyungsoo seems pleased with himself.

“I’m glad that worked out.”  Kyungsoo says.  Looking back on the conversation, Jongin realizes that Kyungsoo didn’t even do anything during that small intervention.  “It was good that you were here.”

“Because I did most of the talking?”  He asks, he lets out a small laugh.  “Did you use me?”

“You’re good with people.  I just needed to get you two in the same room.”  He’s smiling.  Jongin loves that smile, or any of the smiles that he has.

Jongin waves that idea off.  “I barely talk.”

“That’s not important.”  Kyungsoo writes off.  “Anyways, Chanyeol’s been so obvious that Baekhyun will realize right away love has been staring him in the face.”  Jongin wishes he could bottle up the confidence that Kyungsoo just said that statement with.

“You really want them to be happy.”  Jongin muses.

“It’ll be good.  If I couldn’t have my love doesn’t mean Chanyeol should be the same way.”  Kyungsoo is finishing his fourth drink.  It might be time to cut him off if he is starting to reach the introspection stage.

“You still have a chance.”  Jongin shouldn’t have said anything but he is a bit too far gone to filter himself.  He should of stayed silent, let the topic pass.

“Can I?”  Kyungsoo says airily.  Jongin turns to look at him and he is hyper aware of Kyungsoo sitting next to him.  The silence causes Kyungsoo to worry and turn to him.

This is where Jongin messes up.

“Of course.”  He says before pressing his lips against Kyungsoo’s.  It’s quick, barely a peck and Jongin can already feel the anxiety filling every single nerve in his body as he pulls away.  He stands up “I shouldn’t have done that, sorry.”

Jongin doesn’t look at Kyungsoo before leaving.

\------------

Kyungsoo doesn’t come into the shop that week. 

He doesn’t tell Chanyeol.  Chanyeol seems to treat Jongin the same during a small chat on the phone where Chanyeol needs help about how to confess to Baekhyun.  Sunday morning breakfast has Jongin spilling his guts out to an exasperated Baekhyun.

“How stupid are you?  He just lost his boyfriend.”  Baekhyun says.  When it wasn’t about him, Baekhyun could be ration when it came to love.

“I know.”  Jongin picks at his pancakes.  He loves pancakes but this kiss is haunting him in a way that he doesn’t like.  His mind keeps bringing it up and he groans at it every time.  How is he supposed to face Kyungsoo again?

“I’m sure he’ll come around, he really likes you, at least as a friend.”  Baekhyun tries to comfort him.

“What do you mean?”

Baekhyun lets out a breath.  He’s hesitant and speaks slowly.  “I think under different circumstance, he wouldn’t have any problems falling in love with you.”  He looks like he is trying to debate in his mind whether to say something or not.  “But right now, I don’t know what to say, Jongin.  You should try and back off.”

Jongin speaks quietly as he pushes his pancakes away from him.  “Baekhyun, I think I love him.”

“Oh!”  Baekhyun exclaims, mouth opened.  It’s like he didn’t think Jongin really like Kyungsoo or anything.  As if this was just a small crush.  “It’ll be okay.  Love is stupid sometimes.  I should know.”

\------------

Chanyeol picks a Saturday to confess and tells Jongin to bring Baekhyun to a specific bar that is known for being calm and a bit more intimate.  It has clear windows spanning the front and the inside is dark.

Jongin’s heart beats in audible thumps as he approaches Kyungsoo and Chanyeol with Baekhyun.  The four greet each other normally, letting Baekhyun sit with Chanyeol.  It was about them, not Kyungsoo tonight, Jongin tried to tell himself.

Chanyeol is nervous, small movements that all three hope Baekhyun doesn’t notice.  They drink a pitcher together and the atmosphere is normal.  Kyungsoo makes no indication that the kiss happened, talking to Jongin as if nothing was out of place.  He doesn’t touch Jongin, not even accidently and Jongin is hyper aware of Kyungsoo while also trying to keep an eye on Chanyeol. 

At some point their regular antics cease.  Chanyeol says he want to get a bit of fresh air and Kyungsoo whispers that Baekhyun should go out as well to Jongin.  At that moment Jong gets a text from Baekhyun asking if the two of them would like to be alone.

Jongin responds that he would like to be alone with Kyungsoo and Baekhyun leaves with a small excuse to keep Chanyeol company.  Kyungsoo approves. Jongin doesn’t say anything before Kyungsoo motions for him to stay quiet and follow him.  They walk to the windows, hiding behind a couple disgustingly making out so that Chanyeol and Baekhyun are in full view but the two of them are not. 

The two stay quiet, pressed together to stay hidden as they watch their two friends talk.  Jongin can feel Kyungsoo pressed into him as they hide.  His noise is slightly pressed into the hair above Kyungsoo’s ear.  Kyungsoo rests into him, turned sideways as Chanyeol talks.  Baekhyun is standing with his eyes trained on the building across the street.  He’s quiet as Chanyeol looks at the ground, heart pouring out of him.  Baekhyun slowly turns to Chanyeol at some point, eyes wide and his mouth parts, jaw falling in surprise slowly.

“Do you think it’ll be okay?”  Kyungsoo asks, anxiously.

Jongin knows the look that is threatening to overtake Baekhyun’s face.  It’s the feeling that he gets when he wants to flee.  He keeps shifting from that to surprise.  “I don’t know.”

Chanyeol stops talking, straightening from his hunched over position out to find Baekhyun staring at him.  Baekhyun looks panicked before Chanyeol is leaving, going back inside before the other can respond.  Jongin and Kyungsoo scramble to beat him there so not to be caught.  Jongin gets a text to meet Baekhyun at the bar and breaks off from Kyungsoo.

Jongin is waiting when Baekhyun sits down at the bar, flagging a bartender down in record time and ordering a whiskey.

“A little strong for you.”  Jongin comments.  He tries to lighten the air because it looks like Baekhyun is about to bolt.

“I don’t care.”

“What’s wrong?” Jongin asks, but Baekhyun is turning to him with a tight mouth and fire in his eyes.  The bartender gives him his shot and he is drowning it is seconds and ordering another.

“You know, I know you know, you ass.”  Baekhyun accuses.  Not denying anything, Jongin lets Baekhyun drink his other shot so the silence can calm him down a little.

“Are you okay?”

“Was Chanyeol obvious?”  Baekhyun asks.  Jongin was not suspecting that, ordering another drink and cutting Baekhyun off when he goes to order another.  “He was wasn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“Fuck!  It’s bad if you noticed.”  Baekhyun curses as he knocks his empty shot glass down.  “Damnit!  He told me he would give me time to think since it goes against the whole ‘true love’ thing he says.  He said he would wait.  What am I supposed to do, Jongin?”

“What do you think about Chanyeol?”

“It’s not what I had in mind.”

“Forget the true love thing for a second.”  Jongin’s shoulders sag.  “Baekhyun he is literally everything you look for.”

“That’s why we were friends.”  Baekhyun runs his hands through his hair.  “Truthfully, I didn’t date him because we were coworkers.”

This causes Jongin to smile, this could work.  “Maybe you should just try it.  Maybe give up on true love for a second.”

His best friend is staring into the empty shot glass.  “I know.  I know I should.  To tell you the truth I’ve known for a while that what I call ‘true love’ is stupid and maybe I should give it up.  I’m tired of keeping up dating someone for a week but I was convinced that what I was doing was the only way to find happiness.  I just don’t know what to believe in anymore.”

“Maybe giving Chanyeol more than a week would help.”  Jongin suggests.

“It would be something new.”  Baekhyun muses, a small smile forming on his face.  “It’s exciting.  I haven’t felt this way in a while.  Maybe I _will_ go for it.”  He looks up to Jongin.  “Thanks.”

Jongin hums.  “I’m just glad you’re taking my advice for once in your life.”

They get up from the bar to rejoin the other half of their group.  Baekhyun holds him back for a second.  “Chanyeol and I have been rooting for you and Kyungsoo for a while, so payback for being in cahoots with Kyungsoo.”

“You bastard!”

“Hypocrite!”

The whole party decides to go home soon after.  Baekhyun and Chanyeol decide to walk home so that leaves Kyungsoo and Jongin catching a taxi.  They pile into the car quickly to give the other two time.

“I saw Baekhyun smiling so I guess it’s good.”  Kyungsoo says after a bit of silence.  There is a bit of traffic to Jongin’s apartment (the first stop) and the car is getting too hot for Jongin.  He’s one breath away from suffocating.  Kyungsoo turns to him where they are crowded into the small taxi.  “Are we good?”

His mind can barely think straight but he tries to word things quickly.  “I don’t think that is for me to decide.  Is it?”

Kyungsoo sighs, leaning back into the seat, eyes close.  “No.  I loved Joonmyun, you know this.  When I told him the first time about you, about how attractive you were and how we got along, he laughed and said that I should leave him and date you.  He loved our friendship, making me talk about it all the time.  He wanted me to be happy, he wanted me to walk away from the hospital and never look back.  He wanted me to leave him.”

Jongin turns to look at Kyungsoo.  He wonders how much the other had to drink.  There are tears coming down his cheeks, silently.  He continues on, stammering.  “I just this…. _this_ just feels like I’m leaving him.”

“It’s okay.  I was wrong we can just be friends.”  Jongin finds the words already coming out before he can stop them.  There is a feeling in his chest, like he might need to go see a clock repairer soon.  He looks out the window of the taxi and realizes it is his apartment.  He pays for his and Kyungsoo’s trip before getting out.

“It’s too soon.”

\------------

Baekhyun’s and Jongin’s Sunday morning breakfast the next morning is full of Baekhyun’s happy chatter.  He’s back to his previous perky self as he recounts his and Chanyeol’s walk to his apartment.  They held hands and everything, it was scandalous.  They have a date set for next Tuesday.  Jongin hasn’t seen this much excitement in someone’s eyes in a while.  He feels good watching his best friend. 

He doesn’t like to see it disappear when Baekhyun asks about Kyungsoo.  Baekhyun asked, so Jongin gives him the full story.  He hadn’t slept well last night, trying to come up with a plan on how to fall out of love with Kyungsoo.  He ended up toying with his own heart when sleep evaded him.  It was fractured, but easily repairable.  For the first time, he wished that it would have left a lasting impression.

“I’m sorry, Jongin.  I know you loved him.”

Jongin relays some of the other things that kept him up about the conversation since he had hours upon hours to analyze it.  “It’s fine.  I was thinking about it and I am really happy that he didn’t use me as some type of rebound.”

“He wouldn’t do that to you.  I think he genuinely cares for you.”  Baekhyun isn’t even finished with his thought when Jongin sees Kyungsoo walking through the door of the shitty diner.  Jongin immediately glares at Baekhyun.  “Chanyeol texted me this morning.”

“Bastard.”

“Chanyeol says that he was up _all_ night and pacing the apartment.  Pay for me, bye bye!”  Baekhyun smiles as he hurries out of his seat and Kyungsoo sits down.  Jongin watches Baekhyun go, not wanting to face this problem so early in the morning.

“Hey.”  Kyungsoo starts off lamely.

Jongin cuts to the chase.  “What was so important you had to interrupt Sunday morning breakfast?”

Kyungsoo takes a breath.  The circles under his eyes are dark.  He has a pimple forming on the tip of his nose.  “I need to talk to you.”

Jongin waits.  The other is fidgeting, like he can’t seem to get the words out and then he goes stock still all of a sudden.  Five minutes pass before Jongin can’t take any more of this.  “Kyungsoo?”

“I told you Joonmyun wanted me to be happy.  He tried to break up with me several times so I wouldn’t have to stay with him in the end.  He wanted me to move on and I couldn’t I just couldn’t.  I was scared when you and I started because I loved talking to you and it made me feel good.  I’m happy with you.”  Kyungsoo says in one breath, like he is trying to just get the words out as quickly as possible.  The speech brings a bit of fluttering hope into Jongin’s chest.

Kyungsoo continues, looking at the table, unable to face Jongin during this vulnerable moment.  He looks like a middle schooler talking to his crush.  “Look, I want to be with you.”

“But you’re scared.”  Jongin says in understanding.  Kyungsoo reaches to take Jongin’s hands from where they rest on the table and holds them in his.

“But I can put that aside if we can take it slow.”  There is a smile on Kyungsoo’s face and Jongin just wants to kiss him right there and then but he doesn’t.  Not yet. 

Right now, he’s happy.

\------------

Jongin works with a smile on Monday.  He had spent the previous day with Kyungsoo, just eating and walking around and it had been perfect in his eyes.  Baekhyun had called later to ask about all the juicy details.  Work seems a bit brighter today.  He’s happy as he texts Kyungsoo about nothing when Lu Han walks into the store, unaccompanied.  His smile is blinding.

“Minseok told me he came here.”  Lu Han says as he rushes to the chair to be examined.  Jongin goes to open his chest and he is shocked to see that the main scar was barely there.  “He told me I’m important!”

“That’s great.”  Jongin responds.  The heart looks a lot better.  The main scar would always be there, not being able to be repaired, but it wasn’t getting worse.  The vertical scars on the other hand were just as bad as before but those were not nearly as life threatening.

Lu Han babbles about how Minseok told him about his own heart.  The encounter sounds incredibly sweet to Jongin.  He’s almost done fixing up the two side scars when Lu Han’s mother walks in.

“Lu Han!  What are you doing skipping symphony.”  She demands from her son as soon as she walks in.  Lu Han seems not to notice the anger in her voice and takes her hand to show her his heart.

“I fixed the big scar, mother!”

“That doesn’t excuse you from symphony.”  His mother scolds, taking an interest in the heart in question.”

“I’ll make it up, I promise.”  Lu Han dismisses.  “But I fixed it!”

The mother sees the main scar being barely a problem.  She looks to Jongin.  “It is good that you fixed the malfunction.”

“It wasn’t malfunctioning!”  Lu Han exclaims.

“Lu Han!”  His mother looks at her son in a way that reminds Jongin of his own mother when she was extremely disappointed in him.  “Do not talk back to me like that.”

Lu Han looks to Jongin.  “It’s not a malfunction, please tell her.”

“It’s not.  He was able to fix things with the person putting stress on his heart.”

Lu Han nods along.  “It’s true!  I fixed things with Minseokkie so everything should be fine.”

“Minseok?   That boy is such a distraction.”  The mother mumbles, disdain clear on her lips.  She looks up to Jongin as if she is realizing she has been wrong all along and Jongin has been right.  “So this should help?”

“Yes.  The scar hasn’t appeared deeper since the last time I saw him.”

She nods in understanding.  There is a calculating look in her eye.  “So I need to find the other two people?”

Lu Han takes a deep breath as he looks to her a bit scared.  “Mother…”

She seems to have gotten the message, looking to herself and then at Jongin who struggles to compensate to say that it is not all her fault and to explain things quickly.  “It’s stress.  It’s too much stress, ma’am.”

“Is this true?”  She looks to Jongin who is nodding.  She puts a hand over her mouth as she tries to take the information in.  She speaks softly.”  We just wanted what was best for him.  Lu Han, you never said anything.”

Lu Han doesn’t seem to want to say anything, so Jongin tries to cover for the child.  “Heart scars come from people we deem most important to us. People we don’t want to disappoint.”

The woman nods slowly as she looks to her son.  “I understand.  We’ll have to talk, then.”

Jongin watches them leave the shop, hoping everything turns out for the best.

**Author's Note:**

> This turned out a lot longer than I ever thought it would. Out of the three stories I imagined XiuHan’s first and ironically it was the one story I was not sure how to end. Oh well, I just wanted to write something with a happy ending for once.  
> Thank you for Reading.


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